Cheers, pop music welcome pope in Yankee stadium

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2008

NEW YORK (AFP) — Tens of thousands of New Yorkers erupted in cheers, waving white and yellow handkerchiefs to welcome Pope Benedict XVI to Yankee Stadium for the final event of his US visit -- a huge outdoor Mass.

Benedict circled the inside of the stadium with the windows to his popemobile rolled down so he could wave to his fans.

The white robes of Roman Catholic deacons filled bleachers next to a rainbow of baseball caps, shirts and jackets worn by the thousands of faithful who had made the pilgrimage to what is usually a shrine to baseball for the Mass to be celebrated by Benedict.

Nuns stood and clapped to the music as a singer-guitarist belted out "Lean on Me" from a chair on the white, purple and yellow platform.

Some 20 meters behind him --...